


Not the Smartest Idea

by ausmac



Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 02:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7783969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ausmac/pseuds/ausmac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The lore Khadgar is famous for his crazy, possibly fatal plans.  The younger one is much the same, especially when Lothar is captured by the Burning Legion.  Crackfic it certainly is.  Give into the Demonic Side, young Guardian!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not the Smartest Idea

Lying flat on his stomach, Khadgar peered down into the Burning Legion encampment.  Beside him, the young scout who’d bought him the news studied the surrounding ground.

“Guardian, there is no way we can get to the Lord Commander.  There has to be a thousand demons down there.”

“More like two thousand, I’d say.”  Khadgar sighed unhappily.  “Lothar, you really have got yourself into a nasty spot of trouble.”

The scout, a young woman slightly older than Khadgar, rolled over onto her back.  “Perhaps we could go back and get help.”

Khadgar shook his head slowly, chewing on his lower lip.  “No, no amount of help could reach him before Gul’dan just killed him out of spite.  If I could just get close enough, I could ‘port him out.  Would only take a few seconds…”

The scout, whose name was Manora, looked at him in awed horror.  “Sir, they’d catch you within seconds.  Even if you use that invisibility thing you did earlier, the moment you uncloaked they’d be on you like maggots on a meat pie.”

“Lovely analogy, thanks.  But yes, “ he sighed, “you are probably right.  A human can’t…”  His eyes unfocused as a thought popped into his head.  “Oh Khadgar, that’s  your dumbest idea yet.”

She eyed him worriedly.  She’d heard tales of some of the young Guardian’s exploits.  “Whaaat?”

“Well, you are right, a human couldn’t get close.  But a demonic creature could.”

Her eyes popped.  “You cannot be serious!”

“Careful, you’re channelling Lothar.  I admit, it’s a bad, dangerous, possibly fatal idea.  But it might work.”

She hunched up on her elbows, obviously feeling it her duty on behalf of her Lord Commander to dissuade him.  “Sir, you cannot turn into a demon.  It’s not like…a hat…you can just put on and take off.  Is it?”

“Weeelll, no.  But I wouldn’t become a demon.”  His eyes narrowed in thought.  “Maybe…just Felsworn.”

“And the difference is?”

“Well, a demon takes over a mortal and the mortal is completely absorbed.  That would be no good to me.  But a Felsworn is still at least partly mortal.  I’d still be in control.”  He paused, uncertain.  “I think.  At least, my research indicates that.”

“Call me dumb, but I really think putting yourself at risk this way could be a very bad idea.  If that horror Gul’dan got his hands on the Guardian as well as the Lord Commander, that couldn’t be a good thing for us.”

“Wouldn’t be very good for me either.  But it’s that or watch Lothar die.”  He turned dark, anxious eyes to her.  “Frankly, Manora, I don’t really care much for that idea.”  He crawled back from the ridge and stood, dusting his clothing.  “Well, if I’m going to do it, there are a couple of things I need.”

“A Potion of Grow a Brain?”  she muttered, following him, and he laughed.

“Manora!”

“Sorry, very disrespectful of me.  But seriously….”

Khadgar grinned.  “Quite alright.  And probably accurate.”

“So what do you need?”

Khadgar scratched his ear as he considered it.  “Well, first, I need a demon.  It can be a small demon, but I need enough to collect some of its blood.  Enough to drink.”

“Yech!”

“Uhuh.  And I also need a Fel source.”  He looked around, and pointed to a small bubbling green puddle a few feet away.  “That would probably do.  During the fight with Medivh I got a fairly big dose of Fel.  I managed to purge all of it out of myself, but my body will be familiar with its touch so I shouldn’t need much to renew the acquaintance.”

They moved around the edge of the plateau and finally located a demonic sentry.  There was a man-sized figure dressed in robes with large horns and hooves for feet.  Khadgar whispered as he watched them.

“The big one is a demon, and he has a couple of imps and a felhound with him.  Either of the imps or felhound would be good enough.”  He stood and moved up behind a tree.  “You stay here.  No, I’ll be fine.”

Leaving the unhappy scout, Khadgar sauntered across the red soil towards the demon.  “Hey, ugly!”

The demon straightened, glared at him, and waved a hand at his creatures.  The three smaller demonics howled, growled and launched themselves at him.

Manora watched as the Guardian swung into action.  He shoved his staff into the ground and gestured with both hands.  She could hear him whisper a series of words, spells of some sort, at the same time. Multi-coloured swirls gathered in the air around his hands, arcane symbols formed and the air hummed with power.  A moment later a beam of blinding red light sprang out from his hands and struck the larger demon in the chest. It exploded in a rush of flame.  He moved his hands again and just as the smaller demons reached him, he spun around in a circle and blue/white light whipped out, sweeping through the howling demons, cutting them in half.  They screamed, thrashed and died.

It had all taken no more than 10 seconds.

She stood and ran to him.  “That was impressive.”

“Thank you, but it was a fairly simple combination.  This part won’t be so much fun.”  He bent to one of the smaller corpses, angled its ugly head up and slipped a cupped hand under its throat.  Sluggish discoloured blood seeped onto his palm.

He stood and held up the hand and made a face.  “Let’s hope theory and research are right, and this doesn’t just poison me.”  He sucked in a deep breath, squinted and poured the liquid into his mouth.

He made a face and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.  “Ghastly.  Right, now for the rest.”  He stood and walked to the Fel pool, crouched down and looked at it with the expression of a man who’d rather be anywhere else.  “This might be a bit of a disaster, Manora.  You might want to back off and be ready to run.”  He took a deep breath, squinted his eyes closed and thrust his hand into the Fel.

For a few seconds nothing seemed to happen, and then it did.

He suddenly lurched upwards and away from the pool and his eyes flew open.  He turned towards her and she saw the wide brown eyes sparkling with green fire.   

Then he began to shiver.  The air vibrated as if the magic around him were warping and twisting in anguish – and then he gasped, doubled over and groaned.  He gave a keening cry and convulsed, shaking from head to toe.  As Manora watched, the Guardian’s body transformed.  His skin darkened, turning a reddish-brown, his hair flowed down over his chest, its gleaming length changing from dark brown to red at the ends .  He looked down at hands that had become elongated, with curving claws in place of fingernails.  When he straightened, his eyes glowed entirely green in a vaguely distorted face.

She shivered, stepping back, groping for her daggers.  “G…Guardian?”

He waved a hand shakily.  “It alright Manora…I’m…oh dear Light, it’s not really alright, I want to throw up…”  The voice was deeper, and he shuddered, swallowed and coughed hoarsely, wavering on his feet as he sought balance.  “I can’t say…it feels good but I still am me.”  Khadgar straightened and looked down at himself.  “Well, that’s that then.  Let me see if I can….”  He whispered an incantation, waved one hand, and his normal clothing transformed into a long black and red robe, belted at the waist.  His hooded cloak swirled around him, woven with demonic sigils, and even his staff was altered, tipped with spikes and hanging skulls.  He took in a deep breath and straightened, pulling the long robe sleeves back from his wrists.

“I’m sending you back to the city.  Tell them I’ll be bringing Lothar in and not to kill me when I arrive.”

She watched him form the ‘portal magic.  “Right.  Don’t kill the Felsworn possessed Guardian.  Got it.”

He grinned, an odd look on that altered face, and pushed her into the glowing sphere.  “Get out of here.”  The light flashed blue-white and her disapproving features faded as she vanished.

Khadgar turned and walked up the rise and looked out over the mass of demonic figures.  “Ok, now for the really hard part….”

 

Demons were a bit like dogs, they could smell fear.  As he reached the outer ring of guardian demons he saw heads swivelling towards him and knew they were sensing his.  He stopped and gathered himself together.  It was difficult not to feel some fear, it was a natural flight response for any mortal faced with so many demons.  The only way was to let the Fel take over a little more of him, so that it became a shield between his mind and heart.  As the Fel spread its tendrils further into him his fear became muted, fading into the background like wind chimes in a storm.  It was a risk, but if he failed to reach Lothar, then nothing mattered anyhow.

He walked past huge Felguards and their commanding Nathrezim doing some sort of training that seemed to mostly involve picking up and throwing each other around, with accompanying roars.  There were a few Observers floating around and he avoided those, as they might be sensitive enough to be aware of his unusual nature.  Large numbers of wyrmtongues carted supplied and equipment around, an Aranasi passed by leading a pack of darkhounds, and he saw the enormous bulk of a Pit Lord not too far off sitting on a heap of bones that he’d apparently been chewing.  And the whole place stank, with smells that the Felsworn part of him didn’t seem to mind, and the human part of him did.  It was a mixture of rotting flesh, unwashed bodies and twisted magic.

And in the midst of all the demonic energies, he could sense one small spark of mortality.  He turned towards it, making his way with slow, superior disregard for the lesser beings around him just as any Felsworn would. 

In a cleared space on a rise was a structure built of stone and steel, draped with skulls and tattered banners taken from the forces of Azeroth.  He headed towards it and stopped at the entry as one of the large sentry Wrathguards raised a hand.

“Stop,” it said in its deep, hateful voice.  “You will not enter.”

He looked up at the Wrathguard, eyes narrowed.  “Yes I will.  Move aside.”

Obviously it wasn’t built to respond to argument, because the Wrathguard paused, green eyes flashing.  “I have no orders for this.”

“Well, I’m giving you new orders.  I can enter.  By order of…Gul’dan.”

The Wrathguard flexed its shoulders, enormous paws clenching the handle of its tree-sized pike.  “Gul’dan said you are to enter?”

“That’s right.  Do you really want to disobey Gul’dan?”

The two conflicting situations seemed to confuse the demon.  On the one paw, it had orders.  On the other paw, it now seemed to have other orders.  And it certainly didn’t have orders to disobey Gul’dan.  “Yes.  You will enter.”

Khadgar pushed the hide curtain aside and stepped through. 

Lothar was sitting on the floor and his head lifted as Khadgar entered.  He wasn’t looking his best; one eye was closed shut, his face was bruised and dirty, he’d been stripped of his armour and was secured to a post by a chain attached to a tight collar around his throat.  All that didn’t seem to have affected his spirit though.  Unquenchable courage shone out of him like sunlight.

Khadgar crouched down, grabbed his face, and kissed him.

Lothar spat in disgust and kicked Khadgar in the shins.  He glared.  “Do that again and you’ll lose that tongue.”

 “Sorry, can’t break the habit.  If I rescue you, I have to kiss you.”

Lothar paled.  “That’s…tell me you’re not Khadgar!”

Khadgar stood, and broke the chain holding Lothar with a flicker of power.  “Well, I could, but I’d be lying.”

“Great hairy demon BALLS, Are you INSANE!”

There came a rumbling query from outside.  “What goes on?”

Khadgar leaned forward and hissed.  “Scream.” Lothar continued to stare at him, shocked. “I said scream, like I’m hurting you,” he whispered and Lothar seemed to get the idea.  He screamed and Khadgar laughed loudly. “Suffer, mortal!”  That seemed to satisfy the demons, who made no further demand.  “Right, time to go.”

“You didn’t,” Lothar whispered as he undid the collar, “turn yourself into a demon just to rescue me, did you?”

“I can confirm I have not turned myself into a demon.  I’m a Felsworn.”

“Oh,” Lothar said, snarling, “that’s okay then.  What a relief!”

“Look – can we talk about this later?  I need to concentrate here.”

Lothar fumed quietly as Khadgar formed the teleport matrix.  As it came together a loud voice spoke from just outside the hut.  “What do you mean you gave someone entry?  I gave no such permission!”  As the door flap opened to reveal an annoyed Gul’dan, Khadgar pulled Lothar inside the arcane circle, smiled beatifically at the shocked Orc Warlock, and slammed the portal open.

They appeared in the Lordaeran Palace meeting room in an explosion of light and sound.  Guards leapt forward; Lothar threw his arms wide in front of Khadgar but the guards didn’t attack, simply eyed Khadgar’s demonic form with suspicion.  Khadgar saw Manora on the far side of the room next to one of Lothar’s officers, and he waved.  “Good girl, you convinced them.”

She shook her head.  “I dunno about that, Guardian.  But I did convince them to at least wait before attacking you.” 

And then Lothar was grabbing his arm and dragging him into another room, past a large number of concerned officers whose questions and demands he ignored.  He slammed the door shut and stood with his back to it, eying his lover.

“Please tell me you can undo this.  Please tell me I don’t have to lock you away until you become something so monstrous that I have to kill.  If that happens, if I have to destroy you…..”  He didn’t need to finish it, because they both knew how that would end.

Khadgar sank into a seat and put his staff on a nearby table.  He pushed the long hair out of his face, feeling the Fel ache deep in his bones.  It was painful, but it was also pleasurable in some twisted way.  “Yes, I can reverse it.  It will take time, I’ll need the help of a Holy Priest or Paladin, or maybe both because I’ll have to undergo at least a couple of exorcisms.  Can you put up with this ugly body for a while?”

Warm hands wrapped around his face as Lothar crouched in front of him and he looked down into the blue depths of Lothar’s gaze.  “You aren’t ugly.  If every demon was as beautiful as you, we’d be in real trouble.  But I would like to have my normal human lover back, if you can manage that.”

Khadgar nodded, put his hands over Lothar’s.  “I’ll manage it.  Though now and then I might need to torture you and make you scream, just to feed my demonic urges.”

Lothar looked mildly alarmed.  “Are you…serious?”

“If you take me to bed later,” he said in a hoarse whisper, “I think I could be very serious.”  He ran one clawed finger carefully down Lothar’s cheek.  “A demon lover.   I can understand your concern.  Maybe you just couldn’t…handle me…”

But as he remembered later, Anduin Lothar could always…rise…to a challenge.

**Author's Note:**

> I had this sitting on my computer, fairly unaltered and I thought I'd share it while working on my other fics. Silly but fun. Obviously set in an AU where Gul'dan bought the Burning Legion through much earlier than in the real history.
> 
> Don't forget to take a look at my Live Journal WoW story and fic recommendation community at http://wowwords.livejournal.com/


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